Clinicians who interpret images make fewer errors when they are able to consult reference images and reference texts. When encountering challenging cases, clinicians frequently turn to textbooks or hunt for reference material on the web. However, the pressure of heavy workloads makes it infeasible for clinicians to consult reference material as often as they would like, as it takes a significant amount of searching to find good examples. Ideally, reference material takes the form of full diagnostic quality exams of known diagnoses, with key images identified and annotated. However, cases in textbooks and online often have only a few static images, usually too low resolution to be considered ideal for diagnosis. Hospital imaging systems and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) often contain the images that the clinician needs for decision support, but the limited nature of existing retrieval interfaces makes it hard for clinicians to find the right studies.
Accordingly, it may be advantageous to provide methods, apparatuses, computer program products, and systems to accommodate decision support and reference case management for diagnostic imaging.